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Abstract:
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The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has prompted new discussions about the role of religious doctrine and religious institutions in shaping sexual behavior. By
comparison, the importance of religion for other forms of reproductive behavior in the
region has largely been neglected in recent years. Given that religion and fertility are
two of the dominant characteristics of the rural African landscape, this omission is
unfortunate – both theoretically and practically. Questions about how these two
phenomena are related are central to developing better understandings of the cultural and demographic features and futures of the region.
Religious congregations are a main source of social exposure for women in a context where opportunities for exposure to new ideas are constrained. Congregations in rural Malawi may provide one of the few opportunities for women to come into contact with women different from themselves. Participation in large congregations, in particular, likely fosters weak ties through which new information can be gleaned about a variety of things, including contraception—a topic about which strong ties are less likely to provide new information or sufficient experiences from which to learn.
In their research, the authors ask how religion and religious involvement are associated with contraceptive behavior in rural Malawi. They draw on unique linked individual- and congregational-level data that allow us to move beyond the status-quo of demographic studies on religion and fertility, which has been to identify and explain differences in fertility and contraceptive use patterns between broad denominational categories. In focusing our attention at the congregational level—the level of direct interaction with both:
(a) religious authority and
(b) lay people -
they examine characteristics that are more relevant to the lives of rural Malawian women and more sociologically interesting for testing and improving theories of religious influence on reproductive behavior. |